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A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

George R.R. Martin

Start date: August 1, 2025

Finish date: August 31, 2025

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

May 02, 2011 Jenn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, royalty, signed-copies, new-author-to-me, books-i-own, 5-star-reads, book-to-tv, fantasy, read-in-2013, dragons

I'm not going to write a full review of this one, but I will say that I heavily enjoyed reading this. Such a vivid world created filled with memorable characters. The twists you never see coming and the deceptions run deep. Don't trust anyone and don't get attached to anyone.

A word of advice, maybe watch at least the first season before reading. Having seen the show definitely helped me in keeping everyone straight in my head. There's just so many people with similar names. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 02, 2011 Tanya Patrice rated it it was amazing

Loved this - it's not easy to read and keep everything straight as there is so much going on BUT I wanted to. It's so well written that I was invested in the characters and the story. And of course, I want to immediately delve into the 2nd book. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2011 Suzanne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-own, august-2011-rrrc-pick-if-for-me, library-overdrive-e-book, library-overdrive-audiobook, bookworm-bitches-catch-up-challenge, tower-teams-read-2014, read-in-2015, top-50-fantasy-books-on-gr-2017, scifi-and-fantasy-club-bookshelf, top-50-fantasy-books-on-gr-2018

I tried reading this book before the TV show started and I was completely lost. Once I saw the show and could keep the characters straight, I really got into this book!

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 21, 2014 Kayleigh {K-Books} rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-physical, fantasy

A Game of Thrones Audio Review on K-Books

"The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that."

Reading these books has honestly been quite a long time coming for me. I am absolutely obsessed with the TV adaptation of this series and I have forever been wanting to give these books a go. I tried to read A Game of Thrones quite a while back and gave up because I really couldn't get into it. George RR Martin's writing is phenomenal but extremely wordy and sometimes it can be extremely d A Game of Thrones Audio Review on K-Books

"The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that."

Reading these books has honestly been quite a long time coming for me. I am absolutely obsessed with the TV adaptation of this series and I have forever been wanting to give these books a go. I tried to read A Game of Thrones quite a while back and gave up because I really couldn't get into it. George RR Martin's writing is phenomenal but extremely wordy and sometimes it can be extremely difficult to read. After trying (and failing) to get into this book more than once I decided to give the audiobook a try... and I loved it.

Game of Thrones is the book that has so many characters that it follows you can't really pinpoint a main character. It follow the story of many lives and how they all interlink somehow in the fight to be King (or Queen) of the Iron Realms.

I have to admit that if it weren't for my love of the series I probably would have given up on this book (again). This first installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series is slow... very slow. There's a hell of a lot of world building that you can't miss out as the reader needs to know about this fantasy world in which we are following. We need to know it and god knows there would be complaints if we just went right into the story being confused as to why any of this was happening. The world-building is necessary but it is long-winded and can be a tad boring at times. It's nothing we can change and honestly if you can get through this bit it is absolutely worth it.

After getting through the long-winded world building I started to fall more and more in love with this story. Honestly George RR Martin may just be some kind of genius as I don't know how he came up with this amazing world and storyline. From families fighting to the throne to the relationships between them I love everything about it. One of his strengths has got to be his characterisation. In this series you will find that there are no good or evil characters, Every character has shades of grey and you don't really know who is the good guy... and I LOVE that!

I do think having seen the TV series adaptation helped a lot while listening to this book. There are times when this book, especially in the audiobook, where you can get really confused about what character is what. There are so many characters that we have in this book and we have so many different perspectives so we can follow the story of them all that had I not seen the show I would have probably gotten confused about them. The narrator did a great job of coping with the infinite amount of characters and perspectives in this book but there are only so many different voices you can put on and sometimes I got a little confused over who this part of the book was about.

A Game of Thrones is a phenomenal start to the series and it just reminded me how incredible George RR Martin is for coming up with this amazing story. I loved it and it made me really appreciate the incredible job the showmakers have done creating a series from this book. It is no easy feat and my hat comes off for them. Bravo. I do admit that they stuck so close to this book that I did find it a little boring at times because I already knew everything that was going to happen but I still adored every second of it and I can't wait to get my hands on the second book in the series.

"When you play a game of thrones, you either win or you die." ...more

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